Split Fins Without Extending?

[soritan]

I added a second palm filter to my 5gal today, simply because I had one available and I figured it'd be handy. While the current didn't seem to bother my boy much, I actually watched his anal fin and caudal fin split, without him flaring at least once. I was watching him swim around, making sure he was cool with the new little current, and He went from having no splits in any fins, to three distinct, long splits. Two in the caudal, one in the anal.

I interpreted that to mean 'too much stress', and turned the filter off. For some odd reason, this other filter was much louder than my other one, so I wasn't too bothered to turn it off.

Out of curiosity: How many people have observed this in their bettas? And, does anyone else own a Red Sea Nano or an Azoo Palm filter? Is your Red Sea Nano noisy like grinding/vibrating? My Red Sea was actually louder than my computer.

My Azoo is almost perfectly silent and gentle. I have the compartment crammed with biomedia that was in my 10 gallon's filter for 2 weeks before I moved it over. So far it's working great for my betta in the 5gal. Since my cories in there temporarily, I thought I'd add another filter, for added filtration until they're moved.

 

[Synirr]

Hmm, that's odd. Maybe the additional current had something to do with it?

I have several nano filters and none of them are loud at all. Either it's vibrating against the side of the tank or it needs a new impeller is my guess.

 

[soritan]

It Could be the current, except as you know, a Nano only generate up to 6 gallons per hour worth of current. It wasn't knocking him around, although he was looking stressed to me -- the way he was swimming, whatnot. However, he was able to actually sit right at the Nano's output and look up at it.

I was actually watching him closely, because I was clutching at the filter all over, looking for a vibration or something. I gripped the whole thing, lifted it away from the tank, removed the lid, pinched the impeller casing. I would sometimes make it less noisy, but it was never quieter than my computer. Even my Aquaclear 20 is quieter than my computer. So I imagine it was damaged in shipping, and needs a new impeller.

I really recomend the Azoo Palm filters, for people looking for some water movement in the 3-5 gallon betta homes. They're rated at about 3gph and are very quiet. I have the chamber of mine stuffed with LECA (lightweight expanded clay aggregate), which I had in my cycled Aquaclear 20 for 2 weeks. It definately helps. Of course, I think it'd be inadequate for any other sort of tank, except for maybe a shrimp tank. But for Bettas it's doing me rather well.


*edit: Of course, Sori is an old fish, maybe he's just got really thin finnage that's quite easily torn (likely, in fact).